


Stronger than Ever

by Hyogacamus1984



Category: Hey! Say! JUMP, Johnny's Entertainment
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-31
Updated: 2017-07-31
Packaged: 2018-12-09 07:56:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11664879
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hyogacamus1984/pseuds/Hyogacamus1984





	Stronger than Ever

With 12 straight days off in 2016 after the countdown concert in Osaka, Keito never made it back home on the tour bus but head straight to Haneda Airport with just a backpack with necessities (aka wallet, phone and passport) to fly to England for a nice break (week and a half), away from the people he love and the people he works with nearly every day, because he needs to go and see the person that he loves about 9000 miles away, who loves him unconditionally just like his family.  
“See you later guys.” Keito says as he jumps out of the van, leaving eight people completely speechless.  
“You know what, I have always admired how Keito doesn’t care about anything in the world, despite the fact that he is possibly one of the most caring people I know.” Chinen says.   
Keito takes out his phone and sends out two messages, one to his father and one to his ‘onechan’, the one that will take care of her when he gets to England.

Keito: going to England for a break, will be back.

Keito: I am landing in Heathrow at half past three in the afternoon so I should get to yours by five o’clock. Hope you’re home!

He isn’t expecting any response because it is in the middle of the night in England. He turns off his phone off as he gets himself comfortable on the plane for a 10 hour flight.

*

“You bastard.” the petite female says as she hugs Keito at the arrival gate with two cups of coffee – one for herself and one for Keito. Keito is definitely not expecting someone to meet him in the airport. “Could have told me earlier! I woke up and got the message and the first thing that went through my head was ‘what the fuck’!”  
“Sorry, it was a bit last minute.” Keito says, rubbing his eyes.   
“Tired?” Keito nods as he takes a sip of the coffee. It tastes strangely like home for some really reason. “Come on. Let’s go home.” she says.  
The journey back home is quiet, Keito watches the rain drops on the window as they drive towards their destination.  
“Don’t you have to work today?” Keito asks.  
“It’s the New Year honey – I get public holidays.” She smiles.   
“But what about your job?”  
“I’ll just take some time off, you’re more important.”  
“Nothing’s changed.” Keito comments as he draws his finger across the condensation on the window.  
“Depends what you mean by that.” She answers as she parks her car in her drive way and the two of them runs from the rain. “Tea?” She asks.   
“Milk please.” Keito answers.  
“You go and freshen up and get yourself sorted in your room.” She says. “I’ll get some snacks and some tea, and we’ll think about dinner in a bit.”  
“Okay.” Keito says as he takes two steps at a time up to the first floor. He walks towards the room opposite the bathroom and puts his bag down. The bed has been made and there are three fluffy towels at the end of the bed. He opens the wardrobe and his clothes are still there too, as if he has been living in the house (Even though they won’t fit him anymore). He heads towards the bathroom and washes his face and quickly freshens up before heading back downstairs and into the sitting room.  
“Not that it’s not lovely to see you, but you gave me 10 hours of notice and turning up 9000 miles from home and away from your family. What’s up?” She asks as she sits on the sofa with her cup of tea. Keito tucks himself next to her on the sofa and snuggles in close.  
“This is my home too. You said so yourself.” Keito pouts, reaching out for his mug of tea and inhales and grabs a Rich Tea biscuit with his other hand. He gets English breakfast in Japan too, but it just isn’t the same. Nothing beats Fortnum and Mason tea, and he misses that a lot.   
“We have had this before – you turning up with practically no notice.”  
“Never.”  
“Back in 2011, you did something similar, remember?” She says.   
“It’s been a while.”  
“It seems like your natural instinct to escape from something is to buy a flight ticket and go to England.” She smirks.  
“I am not escaping. You are family. I need to see my family every now and then.”  
“You are welcome here any time, whenever you feel like it. But as much as I love you honey, this was your home.” She answers, patting his head. “And I am your family no matter what, but the moment you went back to Japan, following your father’s footstep and do the things you wanted to do, I become part of your past, and as much as I love you and I know for a fact you love me too, I cannot always be there for you as your family whilst I am 9000 miles away.”  
“Well I am here now.” Keito answers. “Besides, I have been trying to get you to come to Japan, not just to see my amazing performance, but to be in the family box, you know.”  
“Once was enough and I didn’t even have to talk to anybody. I love seeing you and watching you on stage and you know how much I love live music, and I think you are a great performer. But if I go again, it means I will have to try and communicate with my very bad Japanese with your real family and friends properly, and you know that can either be totally disastrous or absolutely hilarious. Your father is great, but your father is also part of the same world as you are. You send me the DVDs and videos to keep me going anyway, I am quite content as it is. Besides I am not sure how much screaming in my ear I can take.” She laughs. “So. What is it this time? Last time was when Ryutaro left and you and Yamada had a massive fight.”  
“I just thought I need a change of scenery.”  
“Why?”  
“I have some time off.” He answers. “Rather than cooped up at home, I might as well come back to England for a bit. I miss it here. And I miss you too.”  
“I know you do.” She says. “I miss you too. But that doesn’t answer my question. What about work?” He shrugs.   
“We’ve done the recordings of ‘Sayonara Sensation’ for the second Assassination Classroom movie; the PV isn’t being shot until March because that’s the only time they can get us all together. ‘Little Tokyo Live’ is now ‘Little Tokyo Life’, so there’s no live recording and we have filmed plenty, counting we only do like two shows a month. We’ve done lots of the filming in studio for ‘Itadaki High Jump’ and according to the stats I have been out... six times since we became a regular show. Obviously I have been out a few more time than that because it’s all pre-recorded; but since I am hardly ever on location and I don’t remember seeing anything on my schedule, they are not going to miss me. The new album is not due for recording for a while and the single isn’t out until May and we haven’t even gotten the demos yet…”  
“You sound like you’re complaining…” She says. “…Which is good, because I think you need an outlet on your frustration. You are too caring and too polite for your own good.”  
He is quiet after that.   
The two of them sits on the sofa, she plays with her phone whilst Keito leans heavily against her with his cup of tea.  
“Can we go and get food? I am hungry.” He asks when he finishes his tea and practically munches most of the biscuits on the coffee table.  
“Of course honey.” She smiles.

*

They head to her usual place for dinner and order her usual food without looking at the menu whilst Keito tries to make up his mind.  
“Let’s have a bottle of wine.” She says, picking up the wine list.  
“Just a bottle?” He raises an eyebrow at her. “Don’t you have to work tomorrow?” He asks.  
“Fuck work.” She smiles. “I’m spending as much time with you as possible. I don’t see enough of you. Like I said, I can take time off, it’s not like I can’t work at home anyway.”  
“You’re the best.” Keito smiles. She pats his hand with a smile before turning back toward the wine list and Keito tries to decide what he wants for dinner (and makes up his mind eventually).   
Throughout dinner, Keito tells her about everybody in the group. Even though he seems to be the one that get bully in front of the camera, they are all really close, especially Yamada and Chinen because they are so close in age. He’s close to Yuto too, but Yuto has his own social circle outside and sometimes he goes off and does his own thing. Hikaru might seem harsh to him in front of the camera, but he is the one who teaches him nearly everything, and is close as an older brother type of person that he will ever get.  
“But it’s hard though.” He says, taking a sip of his wine. “Yama-chan, Yutti and Chinen have known each other since they were like... really young, especially Yama-chan and Yutti. They have fought and made up, so I feel like an intruder a lot of the time.”  
“You don’t look it.” She says. “It’s been over eight years now though, hasn’t it? You are like brothers, from what I see.” He nods.   
“I have always wanted to ask you this.” Keito says. “I was nine when you first met me. You were eighteen.” She nods. “How come you are so comfortable with having a nine-year-old child following you around? Taking him with you to university during half-term? Especially you speak practically no Japanese and I speak practically no English?”  
“I have some Japanese.”  
“Not enough to communicate with someone who doesn’t speak anything BUT Japanese. I used to call it Tourist Japanese, remember?”  
“Hey I did okay communicating with someone who didn’t speak much English the first time. And I never officially learnt Japanese.”   
“True.”  
“You should say a massive thank you to Kinki Kids, V6, Arashi, Tackey and Tsubasa and KAT-TUN. Even SMAP and Tokio.”  
“I think I really should.” He laughs. “I’ll make a note for when I get back.”  
“But you understood me though, didn’t you?” Keito nods.   
“It was weird.” Keito says, pondering on the question. “You felt familiar, and I felt like I could rely on you, admittedly it might be the fact that you are Asian, and you are older and tried to talk to me and made me feel like I have friend. But it’s like… I don’t understand why an eighteen-year-old wants to take care of a nine-year-old especially the communication channel was bad English and bad Japanese, a lot of pointing and hand waving in the air.”  
“To be honest, I don’t really know myself.” She says, reverting back to Keito’s question. “If you think about it, I don’t see much of you because I was in university and you were in primary school. I saw you twice every month the most, and you spend half-term with me and that’s it really. You’re such a cute little thing and I think I know what it feels like to be in a foreign country on your own. I mean, even though I grew up in England, England only became my home when I got older because I was in boarding school. I am Chinese by blood and British-Chinese by origin and I know what it feels like when you don’t fit in completely and I guess I just feel protective about you? You were so little, and you were on your own. I just feel like I have to protect you somehow.”  
“For an eighteen-year-old back then, you have too much patience with a nine-year-old.”  
“Just you, I think; because you were quiet and I can cope with that.” She smiles. “Admittedly you’re still quite quiet but you have random unintentionally funny moments. You’re just so easy-going and I kept thinking I need to protect you because it seems like you’ll be bullied by the other kids. I know what English kids can be like. Besides, us Asians have to stick together right?”

*

They head to the bar after dinner for another drink, and Keito is enjoying the fact that he can be his twenty-two-year-old self without having someone breathing down his neck or worried about having the paparazzi after him. He can drink as much alcohol has he wanted and get completely wasted, and no one would care. He doesn’t like speaking English in Japan because everybody wants him to talk more because he doesn’t sound Japanese. He doesn’t mind speaking English in England because he just sounds like everybody else and he is expected to speak English, even though he looks foreign.   
“Two tequila shots.” She orders. “And two Strawberry woo woo.”  
“Are you trying to get me drunk?” Keito laughs, throwing a piece of napkin at her face.   
“Me? Getting you drunk?” She laughs and points a finger at his face. “You should have been drunk plenty of times by now. I want to make sure you’re drunk enough so you won’t be crawling into my bed and scare the shit out of me half way through the night.”  
The two of them paint the town red, and definitely drink too much alcohol. Keito regularly sends photos of the two of them with their drinks or at the bar to the rest of JUMP and also send messages to his papa that he is okay.   
Round about half past one in the morning, the two of them admit defeat and call a cab home, just after they head to a kabab whilst waiting for the cab (and ordered one massive chicken burger).  
“You know what?” She says as she sits on the sofa, her feet pop up onto the coffee table and the mayonnaise from her chicken burger dripping onto her jeans. Keito tucks himself into her arms again and lean against her shoulder whilst he takes a massive mouthful of her chicken burger. “Stop eating my food.” He smiles, but takes another mouthful anyway.  
“What?” He mumbles with a mouth full of chicken burger.  
“Do you want to hear my view on the ‘Itadaki High Jump’ front?” Keito nods. “From what I saw, and what I remembered, I don’t think Yuto hasn’t been on location much either, in fact - I think he’s been on location as much as you have, if not, probably less. One of his location shooting was done across two episodes so when it’s on TV, it seemed like he has been out more than you do.”  
“He has movies to make. He’s the real ikemen of the group, he is a serious actor. He has a reputation and he can’t embarrass himself too much. Besides, he has so many other hobbies and he’s so talented in whatever he does he can probably look good dressing up as a ketchup bottle.” Keito sulks. “Yama-chan and Chinen have both got movies to make and they are both out more than me. Dai-chan was doing drama but he was still out a lot.”  
“The staff and the production team try to get you all to show the side that the fans and people in front of the TV don’t see. I mean, they made Yamada climb high bridges and ride on rollercoasters just so that he’ll scream and cry. They get Chinen to play with big massive dogs, knowing he doesn’t like animals. The only thing they know you don’t like is supernatural things and there is only so much you can do on that front. I guess maybe there’s going to be a haunted house one and you might get called to do that. Possibly with Yuto and Takaki. Actually, probably Yamada most likely because he’s just scared of everything and his natural reaction is so over the top that it’s hilarious. Your studio reactions are so much more entertaining than your reactions on location because they can’t control what you say without editing too much out. That’s why I don’t think you go on location much.”  
“Does it mean that I am boring?”  
“No.” She says. “You’re just a very strong person with not many fear and you don’t complain much. You are intelligent, but you also have a common sense brain which, as much as I really love watching you all, I think only Yabu has that type of mindset in your group, and even then he blurts out weird stuff every now and then. Everybody else cares too much how they should present themselves in front of a camera, but you don’t. And don’t ever change. You are great as you are.”  
“Thank you.” He answers.  
“And don’t ever think that no one needs you. Because we all do.” She adds, planting a mayonnaise-covered kiss on his bleached hair. 

*

Chinen: You are out partying without me?   
Hikaru: Don’t drink too much! Take care!   
Yamada: Come back soon. We need you.  
Dai-chan: Can you bring me back Scottish Shortbread?   
Yuya: Let me know when you’re on your way back, I will come pick you up.   
Yabu: Have a nice break and come back enegerised!   
Inoo: It’s so quiet without you Keito.   
Yuto: When are you back? We miss you!


End file.
